Family game
Kingdomino
Build a tiny kingdom from land dominoes in twenty minutes
- Set-up
- About 3 min
- Reading
- None
The quick verdict
Full verdict ↓Great for A first proper strategy game for children aged 8 and up, since every turn is just 'pick a tile, place a tile'
Think twice if Your group wants lots of talking, bluffing or laughing; Kingdomino is quiet and thoughtful
How we rate it
Learning curve. Each turn is just 'place a domino, pick a domino', and the scoring is simple multiplication. Kingdomino is one of the reference games for 2 on our scale, alongside Ticket to Ride and Codenames.
Luck & skill. Which dominoes come up each round is random, and with three players some land types may barely appear. Choosing well between a strong tile now and an earlier pick next round is where skill comes in.
Interaction. You only build your own kingdom and nobody can attack it. The only contact is in the pick: you can grab the domino a rival needs, or take a weaker one to choose first next time.
Set-up. Give each player a starting tile, a castle and their king or kings, shuffle the dominoes (24 for two players, 36 for three, all 48 for four) and stack them in the box with the numbers showing. Lay out the first row and you are ready.
Reading. The tiles have no words, only pictures of land and small crowns. Only the person teaching needs to read the rules once.
Learning curve: 1 = UNO or Connect 4; 3 = Catan; 5 = a heavy strategy game. These describe the experience, not an overall score.
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Is Kingdomino right for you?
Great if
- A first proper strategy game for children aged 8 and up, since every turn is just 'pick a tile, place a tile'
- Couples, using the two-player rules or the bigger 7x7 'Mighty Duel' variant
- Short weeknight sessions: a game rarely runs past 20–25 minutes
- Gifting: it won the Spiel des Jahres (Germany's Game of the Year award) in 2017, and the Indian edition is inexpensive
Skip it if
- Your group wants lots of talking, bluffing or laughing; Kingdomino is quiet and thoughtful
- You want a long, meaty game for an entire evening
- You regularly have 5 or more players; the box handles 4 at most
A place on the honours list
Good company to be in.
Recognition from beyond our table.
Spiel des Jahres (German Game of the Year), 2017 (Winner)
How Kingdomino plays
Each player starts with one square tile holding a small 3D castle. Over the game you add dominoes: tiles made of two squares of land, such as wheat fields, lakes or mountains. Some squares have one or more small crowns printed on them, and those crowns are what make land worth points.
- Time to teach: about 5 minutes.
- Reading and language: There is no text on the tiles. You only need to read the rules once, and someone who already knows the game can teach it in any language. You can play without knowing English.
How to play Kingdomino! · Blue Orange · Official
Choose a video · Watch right here
If this creator doesn’t allow embedded playback, watch on YouTube ↗.
A turn, step by step
- 1Place
Add the domino your king is standing on to your kingdom. It must touch your castle tile, or match the land on at least one side, and everything has to fit inside a 5x5 square. A domino that cannot fit is thrown away.
- 2Pick
Move your king onto a domino in the next row. Taking a lower-numbered, weaker domino means you choose earlier next round, so you are always trading a good tile now against a good pick later.
- 3Score
When the dominoes run out, score each patch of one land type: its number of squares times the crowns in it. A patch with no crowns scores nothing, and the highest total wins.
The full explanation: how a game of Kingdomino goes
Each round, a row of dominoes is laid out in number order, using the number printed on the back of each tile. Players take turns placing their wooden king on the domino they want. The catch is that grabbing a better domino now usually means choosing later in the next round, so you are always weighing a good tile today against a good pick tomorrow.
When it is your turn, you add the domino you claimed to your kingdom. It must either touch your castle tile, which counts as every kind of land, or touch matching land along at least one side. Your kingdom has to fit inside a 5x5 grid, and a domino you cannot place is thrown away.
After 12 rounds with three or four players, everyone scores. For each connected area of one land type, you multiply the number of squares by the number of crowns in that area, so an area with no crowns scores nothing. The highest total wins.
With two players, each person uses two kings and only half the dominoes. The rulebook also has optional extras: 10 bonus points for keeping your castle in the centre, 5 for a perfect 5x5 kingdom with no thrown-away tiles, and a 'Mighty Duel' mode in which two players use all 48 dominoes to build 7x7 kingdoms.
What's in the box
- 48Dominoes
land on one side, a number from 1 to 48 on the other - 4Starting tiles
single squares that count as every type of land - 4Castles
small 3D cardboard castles in pink, yellow, green and blue; you put them together before your first game - 8Wooden kings
two in each of the four colours - 1Rulebook
Box: 20 × 20 × 5 cm. Handy to know for gifting and travel.
This list is from Blue Orange's rulebook and matches a US library record for the Blue Orange box. Bored Game Company's description of its Indian edition does not list the contents, so it was taken to be the same game in a different box. A buyer review of the Indian edition says it has rules in English and Hindi and a weaker cardboard insert than the imported box.
Where to buy
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How to make sure you get a genuine copyEditions and the details worth checking.
What reviewers and players say
Kingdomino is widely seen as one of the easiest real strategy games to bring to a family table. Reviewers like how quickly it teaches and plays, the clever choice between a good domino now and an earlier pick next round, and the chunky, cheerful tiles. Children and adults can play together, and the scoring is good maths practice. The common criticisms are that it is light and not very interactive, that tile luck can sting, and that three-player games can leave out the land you were hoping for.
What people love
- It takes minutes to teach and about 15 to 20 minutes to play, so it suits weeknights and first-time players
- The pick is clever: taking the best domino now means choosing later next round, so every turn has a real decision
- Thick, colourful tiles that are satisfying to place, with little castles and wooden kings
- Children and adults can play on equal terms, and adding up 'squares times crowns' is quiet maths practice
Common complaints
- With three players twelve dominoes are left out, so the land type you have been building may never come up
- It is light and fairly solitary: you mostly look at your own kingdom, and the only interaction is in the pick
- Some players dislike the luck of which tiles come out, and the 5x5 limit can be tricky to explain to younger children
Based on 6 reviews and discussions
- Review Kingdomino review (Timothy Linward, January 2023) · Wargamer
- Review Kingdomino review (Tony Mastrangeli, June 2017) · Board Game Quest
- Review Kingdomino (2016) review (Michael Heron, July 2017) · Meeple Like Us
- Players What's the point of the cardboard castles in Kingdomino? (November 2017) · Board & Card Games Stack Exchange
- Players Comment in 'We're in a golden age of board games' (December 2022) · Hacker News
- Reference Kingdomino · Wikipedia
Summarised in our own words from the sources above. We don't use Amazon reviews or ratings.
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|---|---|---|---|---|
| Why consider it | This game Build a tiny kingdom from land dominoes in twenty minutes | A different fit The classic tile-laying game, a little longer, with more ways to score and more interaction | A different fit Another short, good-looking strategy game where you draft pieces and build a pattern | A different fit A step up in length, and just as easy to teach to a family |
| Players | 2–4 | 2–5 | 2–4 | 2–5 |
| Best with | 2 or 4 | 2-4 | 2-4 | 4 |
| Play time | 15–25 min | 30–45 min | 30–45 min | 30–60 min |
| Age | 8+ | 7+ | 8+ | 8+ |
| Rules | Easy | Easy | Easy | Easy |
| Indian edition | Available | Available | Available | Imported |
| On this page | Explore Carcassonne | Explore Azul | Explore Ticket to Ride |
More by Bruno Cathala
Another way into their collection.
Dragomino
Kingdomino for five-year-olds: match landscapes, hatch baby dragons
Splendor Duel
Splendor rebuilt for two: gem lines, card powers, three ways to win
7 Wonders Duel
The 7 Wonders civilisation race, rebuilt as a tense 30-minute duel
More from Blue Orange
Another way into their collection.
More from Bored Game Company
Also made or sold in India by Bored Game Company.
More tile-laying games
Different games. A familiar kind of fun.
Cascadia
Build a Pacific Northwest landscape and fill it with wildlife
Carcassonne
Build a medieval map tile by tile, then claim it
Dragomino
Kingdomino for five-year-olds: match landscapes, hatch baby dragons
Labyrinth
Shift the maze walls to reach your treasures first
Connectors: Mission Space
Link picture tiles into a path through planets and galaxies
Questions people ask about Kingdomino
Is the Bored Game Company Kingdomino original?
Bored Game Company sells Kingdomino as one of its own editions, branded as its own and credited to designer Bruno Cathala. The imported Blue Orange box is the same game in different packaging and costs more. Listings from unrelated brands are a different matter.
Can Kingdomino be played with 2 players?
Yes. With two, each player uses two kings and the game uses 24 of the 48 dominoes. The rulebook also has a 'Mighty Duel' variant in which two players use all 48 dominoes to build bigger 7x7 kingdoms.
What age is Kingdomino suitable for?
The publisher says 8 and up. Turns are simple (pick a domino, place a domino), and the scoring is just multiplication, so it works well as a first strategy game for children who can multiply small numbers.
What is the difference between Kingdomino, Queendomino and Dragomino?
Kingdomino is the original and the simplest. Queendomino is a bigger standalone game with buildings and extra rules for more experienced players, and Kingdomino Origins adds new elements like fire and cavemen. Dragomino is a simpler spin-off for younger children. In India, Bored Game Company's edition covers only Kingdomino itself; the others are imports.
Game facts
- Designed by
- Bruno Cathala
- Publisher
- Blue Orange Games; Indian edition by Bored Game Company
- In India
- Bored Game Company (Pune), which sells its own Indian edition; Blue Orange's edition reaches India as an import
- First published
- 2016
- Players
- 2–4
- Language
- No reading – There is no text on the tiles. You only need to read the rules once, and someone who already knows the game can teach it in any language. You can play without knowing English.
- Box size and weight
- 20 × 20 × 5 cm
- Awards
- Spiel des Jahres (German Game of the Year), 2017 (Winner)
Sources & photo creditsThe references behind this guide.
Facts on this page come from the publisher, the Indian maker or distributor, and the sources below. Photos are credited under each one.